This show was the official launch party for Jonny Cola & The A-Grades' second album Spitfire. Tickets to the show were part of the rewards for fans who helped to Pledge fund the album into existence. The album is available from here: Jonny Cola Spitfire album at Bandcamp. It is also, conveniently, the first night of the band's current short UK tour to promote said album.
First on are THE LADYKILLERS who are all dressed up in black trousers and shirts with a couple of the band sporting black ties with a vertical red stripe. They live up to their sharp image by playing a set of high-octane garage rock that owes a huge debt to The Hives, The Nomads and Rocket From the Crypt.
Now what makes this kind of music work is a super tight band and pin sharp lyrics. The Ladykillers will only have these after a lot more touring but they are on the way. When their singer's vocals are totally coherent as they need to be for the songs to work and he is bellowing about how he's got to "hold on tight" they are really good but the longer the set goes on the more obvious it is their template of playing variations on a very small theme can get a little tedious due to the repetitive nature of the music.
Got A Feeling was probably as good as they get and it was followed by No More: a break up song with some great lyrics. Having said that, it's probably best played early enough in the set so that no wags can agree as it's introduced. By the time they closed with I'll Be Back Again, they had got a good part of the audience going but had also possibly played for a couple of songs too many. Some tweaking's required yet, but if they really work at it they could become another great reductive garage rock band.
After the break I got my first chance to see another of David Ryder-Prangley's bands TEMPLE OF GOLD. This combo features Witches' drummer Belle Star and on bass Duncan DeMorgan with John E Vistic on Guitar. They are all glammed up to the max and it's strange to see a band that David Ryder-Prangley only sings i, rather than playing bass or anything else. Whatever, he's a great front man and this band play balls to the wall glam cock rock with the opener having some of DRP's normal twisted lyrics about being shot in the heart again while the band vamp it up and John E Vistic plays great Mick Ronson meets James Williamson guitar lines throughout the set.
Xanadu Rock City sounds like a Rachel Stamp out-take with monster bass lines from Duncan DeMorgan that thunder along as the guitars rampage and Belle Star keeps everything together with some really tight drumming as DRP takes up on a trip to a glammed up rock world of men in sequinned outfits and make up. What more could we want? Next up is Temple Of Gold, their titular song and it makes me think of a cross between Mott The Hoople and Raw Power-era Stooges. Totally thrilling to hear and to watch the band wreaking havoc onstage.
Fire Fire is played like they are cruising at 120MPH down Ventura Highway in a black 1967 Camaro with flames down its side with John E Vistic's guitar getting more vicious as the song reaches a brilliant climax. That was followed by the wonderfully sardonic Stop Your Crying And Get It On: a perfect slice of twisted life that DRP specializes in; the sort of song I want to be able to play over and over again as a perfect pick me up or pre-club tune! Yes, don't be depressed go have sex hell yeah!!
They finished with I Wanna Be Your Lover. Well, of course you do dahling and if you're asking like this then it may well happen.
Just a great close to a very entertaining and cool set. Temple Of Gold are well worth seeing if you get a chance. DRP of course will be back out on tour later in the year with Rachel Stamp. Check out forthcoming manoeuvres at: Rachel Stamp Facebook.
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Finally it was time for JONNY COLA & THE A-GRADES. The band came on first and opened with a great instrumental before Jonny made his entrance as they went into Rain Stopped Play. Tonight, it sounded like a great cross between Suede and Play Don't Worry-era Mick Ronson. It was hard to see the stage at times for all the photographers down the front, one of whom was juggling a video camera with a stills camera throughout the band's set.
Into The Woods which may or may not refer to Jonny's recent medical problems or it could be a reworking of Relationship-wrecked type love gone wrong. Tropical Beach, meanwhile, glammed things up and as the backing vocals came in there was almost a slight Sha Na Na feel to it although not with a choreographed dance routine. Surely that will come in time, however!!
Blow Up, as ever to me, sounds like a bit of a rip of My Life Story's Girl A Girl B Girl C only in this tune it is Boys 1 to 4 and as a front man Jonny may not be as affected as Jake Shillingford, but he is in that neck of the woods at times, even if this tune is miles better than the tune it rips off and I'm sure it was the result of a happy ending or two.
Straight To Video is the first song with keyboards and both Jonny and Jez Leather take turns at adding said keys as the song builds and falls while the story of this day out unfurls. I'd recommend seeing the video that explains the lyrics better than I can here. Nonetheless, this version had everyone going and the keyboards really allowed Mauro and Jez's guitars to intertwine and then just fade a touch. It really was a highlight of the set.
I'm sure someone will correct me, but the song I always call Wishing my Life Away was next and had a good part of the audience singing along to the chorus.
Going Over, such a good sleazy little song, was played to emphasize what was going on and with each repetition of the line "We're Going Over" it becomes more a gang thing rather than just you going over alone. Which meant it was time to restore Jonny's Halo, on, ahem, Halo, last year's single and it went down a storm.
Out Of The Woods, the most explicit song about Jonny's transplant survivor status also brought the first signs that they were wrapping things up. It featured an electric solo from Jez Leather and some great keyboards as well from Jonny. There was just time for the band to rampage through Get Out, The Party's Over. You know the scene here: you've woken up on someone's floor and don't know how you got there and they are shouting "Get Out The Party's over!" and you don't even know who they are!! Mauro Venegas and Simon Drowner are almost duelling with the guitar and bass as they bring the set to a close.
They are soon enough back for an encore and open it with Marlborough Road. This is a stonking, celebratory version of the single that gets the whole place going before they choose the perfect song to finish things off. Ripples, with its cool keyboard part and perfect ability to be a tune where the band leave one by one as the sound diminishes and the show is at a close. A masterful set from a band who really need to be seen live.
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